Since the serial introduction of airbag modules in steering wheels it has been aimed at improving the arrangement and the integration of the horn circuit. A wide-spread concept provides to mount the airbag module in a floating manner, as a so-called floating horn, wherein the entire airbag module is pressed into the steering wheel hub for operating the horn. Hereby a horn circuit is generally closed, wherein part of a switch is provided at the airbag module and the other part is provided at the steering wheel hub. When the horn circuit is closed, current flows and an evaluation circuit causes triggering of an acoustic alarm signal.
The distance thus covered by the airbag module is relatively long. This entails the fact that between the airbag module and the wall of its receipt in the steering wheel a relatively wide gap must exist to guarantee safe movement of the airbag module. This gap turns out to be disturbing and should be kept as small as possible, however.